More and more college professors are looking at pornography. Some of them are even watching it with their students.

But it’s not the latest student-teacher sex scandal – it’s an emerging phenomenon in academia and one that some say has an important future in university curriculums.

A growing number of professors are examining the historical, technological and legal implications of pornography. And – despite resistance from some quarters – they aren’t shy about including primary sources in the syllabus.

“I don’t actually want to shock anyone,” said Katherine B. Crawford, who teaches Pornography and Prostitution in History at Vanderbilt University. “The premise of the class is that pornography has a long and complicated history.”

Crawford explained that material she assigns to students is carefully selected to promote an understanding of the larger historical problems surrounding gender and politics. She said she has tried to teach the class without showing any pornography but found it less effective. “It was a less visceral experience for students,” she said.

Not everyone who is in favor or examining pornography as an academic subject feels the need to screen it in class though.

“Pornography is readily available at this point,” said Dr. Paul Abramson of the University of California at Los Angeles who teaches a course called Sex and the Law. “It doesn’t serve any intellectual purpose to show it.”

Abramson focuses on the civil, criminal and constitutional aspects of obscenity. The screening of a documentary on the controversial 1970’s adult film Deep Throat is strictly optional, though he said showing adult movies might be appropriate for film or cultural studies.

Opponents of pornography in the classroom say these kinds of courses are crowding out traditional literature and diverting public funds from more important subjects.

“Why spend thousands of dollars on a college campus on what you could get at an adult bookstore,” said Mal Kline, executive director of the conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Academia.

“It’s one thing if you are taking private money and being upfront about what you are spending it on,” he said. “It’s quite another when you are taking tax dollars and doing the same thing.”

Crawford, whose class has been pointed out on Accuracy in Academia’s Web site, was even denounced in Congress by Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

“He doesn’t know anything about what I teach in my class though,” she said, expressing frustration with critics who she feels have misinterpreted the purpose of her course. “I’m not saying ‘Yay for pornography.’ They don’t understand because they don’t ask the questions.”

David Penniman, dean of the School of Informatics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said he hopes some of the external political forces see the merits of studying the social effects of pornography.

“Trying to understand what’s happening and what forces are affecting society is crucial,” he said. “And one of those forces has to do with pornography whether you like it or not.”

Penniman oversees a class taught by assistant professor Alexander Halavais called “Cyberporn and Society,” which focuses on the convergence of pornography and technology.

The parents of one student who enrolled in the class said they were skeptical at first. But “it turned out to be about social norms – not fluff at all,” Fran Schwartz told Time magazine. Her son Matthew took the course and told Time that he had learned lessons that would be valuable for his intended career as a translator in Arab countries.

Despite the controversy, most see the use of pornography in university curriculums as something that it is here to stay and even expanding.

“It’s hard to imagine it will go away as a topic of intellectual scrutiny,” Abramson said, pointing out that obscenity and its relationship to the law is becoming an increasingly popular subject and one that comes up often in state legislatures.

Crawford joked about the need for an “advanced porn-studies” course, saying that with a class of more than 100 students some issues can only be touched on briefly that should be examined in depth.

“I think a lot of schools would be shy about teaching [pornography],” she said. “But universities are supposed to be places for discussion of difficult topics.”